


Kuber's Compound

by Ser_Quicksand



Category: Original Work
Genre: Action, Adventure, Drama, F/F, F/M, Gen, Gun Violence, Language, Original Character(s), Original Fiction, Original Universe, Swearing, Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-02
Updated: 2019-12-03
Packaged: 2021-02-26 06:41:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 18,855
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21638998
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ser_Quicksand/pseuds/Ser_Quicksand
Summary: Welcome to Kuber's Compound. It's a city where anything goes. One where its citizens each try and stake their claim to answer a simple question: "What's the price of your dreams?". With danger as certain as the rising sun, and surviving the day like a roll of the dice, Siro Ravness is about to find out the true "Reality" of Television.





	1. The Founding Father

**40 years ago... **

"Erickson, I sincerely hope you understand the the magnitude of what you're proposing. That you managed to get over half of the board to support it is one thing, but the higher ups and media execs are never going to go for this."

The echo of footsteps filled the halls of the Erickson Global Broadcasting Network's central office. Sixteen floors above the street lay the boardroom as two men ever so slowly made their way towards the doors. One of them, dressed in a beige suit with his squared glasses resting comfortably turns his attention to the blonde man next to him. Opposition was to be expected from the get go, he knew, so Gabriel Erickson felt no surprise at the hesitation his associate was showing him.

"Matthews, we've worked together for years. You know that it's in no small part to your assistance that I've turned this company around into the most successful network in decades. This goes beyond just the company here. More than that, it's more than just ratings too. I have no doubt that you've stuck by me because you saw the enormous potential that the project has."

Alexander Matthews took a moment to stop as the waiting room stood just before them. He scratches the back of his head in thought, making sure not to disturb his neatly tied ponytail before briefly composing himself. It was true that as bold and daring as the plan was, there could be huge possible benefits for not just the Network, or even just on a National scale as well. No, this could extend beyond the country. If all somehow worked out, then in the future everybody would want their share. Yet, there were still undoubtedly going to be many who opposed it.

"Sir, I know that you're my senior when it comes to both age and your position, but even if we can get the support of the media, what about the Human Rights groups? Everybody agrees that the ever-increasing amount of criminal activity from the past 15-20 years needs to be controlled somewhat. It's just that you're essentially talking about luring them to one place with the promise of cash and prizes. People are going to have a hard time swallowing something that sounds like you're filtering out crime into some artificial city just for the sake of ratings and money."

The slightly older man adjusted his glasses as he gave a cold stare behind him.

"I'm planning on opening things up to everybody. If massive gang wars start to break out in the city...then at least people will find it interesting. And what they do once they're in there is up to them, not us."

"Gabriel!"

"Listen to me Alex. Over these past few years, televised executions have become popular. We've seen live streaming of police chases, and even exerts from military battles be shown. People are starting to feel adrenaline from watching those operations of life and death to go along with their own fear of it. It's all about the presentation. We'll be presenting the possibility of crime from a safe distance to our viewers, and we'll give them all the heroes and villains they could hope for when we go into screening our 'contestants'."

With that, Erickson placed his hand on the nob of the waiting room door and opened it, motioning for his younger associate to follow him inside.

As if on cue, a middle aged woman in a light gray jacket rises from her desk to welcome them. While she brushes a strand of her light brown hair out of her face, Gabriel takes a moment to ponder just how much she may have heard from the earlier conversation. Nonetheless, he greets her with a soft smile and a kind wave. Even if she'd heard everything, what he and Alex had discussed would soon be all anybody wanted to talk about. He'd spent equal parts years and finances even getting to this point, and there was no doubt that it would take many more to fully make his vision a reality.

"Good afternoon. Could you tell them that we're here?"

"Of course, Mr. Erickson. I'll let you know when they're ready, so please wait here a moment."

With a friendly yet almost curious smile, she turned her back to the pair and walked towards the double doors that loomed at the end of the room. It could have been the anxiousness that Erickson felt building up inside the pit of his stomach, or it could have been the echoing of her shoes as the walked along the hard floor, but it had felt like forever by the time that Brantford disappeared behind the doors.

A glance over to his acquaintance only served to reaffirm the suspicion that he wasn't the only one feeling as he did. Alex had begun to scratch the tufts of blonde hair on his chin that formed a slight goatee, and it appeared as though he'd been trying to make sure the sky blue tie that he'd been wearing was as neat as humanly possible. Still, the younger man looked like he'd been trying to laugh it off while he was appearing to go over the pitch in his head until he noticed Gabriel's gaze.

"Well," he started, with a grin that seemed to be just as much for himself as it was for his older partner "looks like there's no going back now. We're in this together, one way or another. Don't forget to mention that there's already a location in mind, with the support of the hosting nation. Oh, and that you've got support from some military personnel. Or the economic advantages we and the host country get financially and with the amount or jobs with it. Uh...oh! The finances! Make sure they know there's going to be a way to pay for all of this! Nobody's ever tried anything of this scale before! I mean, well it's a city and all, so they're going to have questions and..."

Placing a hand on the media executive's shoulder reassuringly, a warm smile lines his face. His associate was always pushing himself to try and remember everything, but needed that extra little bit of confidence to trust in his own abilities every now and then. Either way, Gabriel wouldn't have picked anybody else to start this project with.

"I'm glad to have you helping me out, Matthews. Just remember what we've been working for here, and you'll be fine. This isn't going to be the end of all of our hard work, this is just the beginning, so keep your chin up and show some of that enthusiasm. We're 50/50 on this, so trust me a little here and I'll have your back even if Bronson and the others start to give you a hard time. Once we get this ball rolling, the rest is easy."

After a brief nod, Matthews began to give a response, only to be interrupted by the sound of the double doors opening once more and Brantford's return. Erickson hadn't even noticed her motioning them over before he'd starting walking in her direction.

"They said that they'll see you two now. Good luck."

Adjusting his collar and beige suit, he chuckled quietly to himself. _'Luck, huh? I guess everything comes down to that after all.'_

As they made their way through the doors ahead of them, there was no question that both of them were going to put everything they had into making sure that this idea, didn't stay as just that.

* * *

**30 years ago... **

Construction had begun to slow down at a most unwelcome time. For the past 5 years, they'd begun using local employees and contractors due to the cost reduction from flying in additional workers from one country to another. It was true that they periodically received additional assistance and funding, but some of the compromises that had to be made in order to get the plan approved in the first place had been making things more complicated than was necessary.

Gabriel stopped his thought process momentarily and took a moment to survey the area around him. Even with everything put in place, the design schematics set up, and 8 and a half years of solid construction using more construction workers and planners than anybody could even begin to count, there had been roadblocks. The entire city-like area had required a wall on all 4 sides of it to be setup before building had even begun, and the whole region needed to be declared a "no fly zone". Even so, there had to be ways in and out set up. An entry point for the contestants and people inside once the game started had to be designed and be separated from the central gate of entry.

There was a road leading in from the south for bringing materials in via ground transportation, and there had been a man made river and docking area on the west end near their communications centre that led off into the ocean. Erickson had questioned spending the extra manpower and time on such things, but since a secondary means of transporting materials and personnel was a condition he had to meet, his hands were unfortunately tied. Still, the smaller buildings and the drop points they would need for supplies had been finished and set up. The larger ones would sadly require more time, the power grid would still need some working out, and the absolutely massive amount of cameras required to properly broadcast the program was going to be a long and tedious process. Truthfully speaking, it could take another 2 years before they were properly finished and the final stages could begin.

A deep sigh escapes the middle-aged business man as he removes his glasses and rubs his eyes. Without question, the past decade had been long and strenuous. Not just for him, not just for Matthews, who was currently over in the north end, but for his family as well. Now he had a 9 year old son of his own named Geoffrey to look after. Being away from him for such extended periods of time made Gabriel equal parts determined and lonesome. Whenever he was home and explained how he was making a program that would 'get the bad guys off the streets and make us all safer again', the boy just kept showing more and more interest in it. He knew it wasn't much, but being able to share something like that, and seeing the smile on his child's face only added fuel to the belief he was doing the right thing. It had to be so that everything would be worth it in the end.

His phone rang.

Removing it from his pocket and looking down, Erickson let out an ever so slight smile as he noticed Alex was trying to get in touch with him.

"Gabriel here. How are things coming along up there?"

"They're pretty much on schedule like you thought. Right now they're just making sure there's not going to be anybody blowing a hole in the walls. You know, all that safety mumbo jumbo."

He sighed at the last part. Yeah, he knew that having there be live ammunition and very real weapons or explosives in there meant the walls needed to be more than thick and tough enough to withstand it all, but they needed to trust him. They didn't skimp on any of the details when they started putting those things up, and there was more than adequate security in case people tried to stage a revolt and storm any of the entrances. Hell, when Erickson saw them finalize the kinks in what he best described as 'cash out time periods', a lot of the other execs second guessed whether or not people would try to take advantage of them.

As for finalizing the format and rules? Well, that had been a whole other pile of problems with endless safety concerns and tweaks that needed to be made.

"I know, they have to go through everything again just so they can pat themselves on the back after". As Matthews gave a slight chuckle to himself in response, Gabriel swore he could see his partner grinning, before continuing. "I've still got a headache over all the trouble they gave us when they thought we weren't going to let anybody leave. And dealing with all those medical personnel when we had to manage the knockout injections the bangles have? I wasted so much time letting them argue over the dosage just so they wouldn't start thinking we were going to poison people, or that the sensors could be tampered with. Alex, I think I'm getting too old for this crap."

"Looks like I'll have to call that nursing home early, won't I?" Matthews teased, taking note of the 52 year old's groaning response. "Just try to calm down a little bit, would you? The streets, the buildings, the walls, even the cameras and all this tech, it's all thanks to you. We're only a couple of years away from getting the worldwide premiere we always wanted. Hell, it almost makes up for you letting them name it."

"You know how marketing people are. They just wanted something catchy, and your ideas were a little...lacking, Alex. Let them do their whole 'wealth lord' thing if it makes them happy."

"Yeah, yeah. I know, Gabe, you just compromised on stuff to keep them off your back, don't be so serious. Try not to get too impatient, though. Hang in there a little longer, things are only going to up from here."

* * *

**25 years ago... **

Finally, the day Gabriel Erickson had spent the last 23 years of his life working towards had arrived, and for the first time in as long as he could remember, he was nervous. The other Network executives, the current Board Members, the Media Representatives...all of them composing his inner circle were there, waiting to see how the world would react. Each of them were holding baited breaths as the clock moved ever closer to showtime. The office room was eerily quiet, but it was more than just tension that filled the air. It was accompanied by its fair share of hope, uncertainty, and the desire to believe that the response leading up to it would hold, that everything leading up to this point in time wouldn't be for naught.

Even though 'Officially' airing hadn't begun, filming had started 5 days ago, to give the contestants time to acclimate to their surroundings. Erickson also knew the necessity of making sure they could scrounge together enough material to give a promising preview of what was to come. Truthfully, even with a majority of the people currently in the city being comprised of the expected blend of criminals, thrill-seekers, delinquents, and prison inmates, a surprisingly large amount were made up of something else. An alarming amount of homeless men and women had signed up for the experiment. Nobody truly knew what to make of such a development when it first occurred.

In between steadily working to drum up media attention for the moment of truth, Matthews had passed along his theory that people who had literally nothing would gladly jump at the chance to have a place to some kind of shelter and food, even with the high risk scenario they'd be putting themselves into. Gabriel lightly bit his lip as he recalled the thought process one of the Assistant Producers had been open enough to share with him.

" _This works out great for us. The story almost writes itself, sir. 'From rags to riches' in the most basic sense of the term. People won't be able to help but get behind one of them."_

With all the cameras recording footage, and the people in the city, they still had to be the ones in charge of how everything was presented to the general public watching at home. Things had to be kept interesting and entertaining each and every show, but there was a delicate line that couldn't be crossed. The integrity of fairness within what was ultimately a competition had to remain as intact as humanly possible. If that integrity broke, if the audience started to question the authenticity of it and suspected the network and producers of playing favourites, then everything would start to go downhill from there. Ultimately, this experiment was going to boil down to matters of life and death on a grand scale. It wasn't so simple and straightforward as kicking people off some island back to their every day lives. Some of them wouldn't have the same lives when they left, and chances were that more of them wouldn't be lucky enough to get to leave at all.

His gaze falling on the ever growing number of executives in the room and glancing at the timer that approached zero, Gabriel pushed his glasses back up the bridge of his nose. They were fully committed now, and one way or another, this would be the culmination of his life's work.

The screen flickered on with almost a clicking sound.

**3...**

This is it, he thought. All or nothing.

**2...**

The executives, both older and younger gradually stopped their casual discussions as time approached.

**1...**

Erickson takes the last moment to think about his son Geoffrey, and how he's about to start high school in the coming months. All of Gabriel's hard work had led to this, and while he hadn't been able to be the father he'd hoped all the time, once things got underway, that would all change.

**0.**

The picture on screen pans across a production truck, showing countless displays portraying visuals from the cameras throughout the entire city, before making its way to a younger Television Host standing on a sound stage. Behind him is what appears to be almost akin to a commentators desk of sorts, as he brings his hand down from the earpiece on the right side of his head and greets the audience with a warm smile.

Looking to be in his mid-20s, his short reddish brown hair is in a nicely kept brush cut, while his dress shirt and slacks are kept in almost a laid back and casual way. Eagerly, as if the pressure was entirely nonexistent, he parts his lips to speak.

"Good evening ladies and gentlemen. My name is Darren Koetzer, and I'm proud to welcome you all...to Kuber's Compound."


	2. As Seen on Television

**Present Day...**

"All right, I'll take those forms now. Just give me your name."

The young man exchanged glances with the security guard in front of him as the uneasy presence of twenty or so armed soldiers loomed over him. He knew this was standard practice and just another inspection station before the organizers would officially let him be allowed access and recognized as a competitor, but there was no mistaking the sinking feeling that filled the 23 year old's stomach. With a slow extension of his arm, the forms soon made their way into the guard's hands. Nervously adjusting the fingerless gloves on his hands as they withdraw back into the hopeful competitor's cargo pant pockets, he lets out an unexpectedly deep breath.

"Siro Ravness. Applying as squad leader with the support of my two associates."

Tilting his head over his right shoulder, Siro ignores the mumbling of "I guess that's one way to say 'professional ass-savers'..." from the girl behind him who was a year his junior in age, but a decade his senior in wisecracks. The guard either didn't notice or didn't care as he flipped through Siro's forms, muttering to himself about his residence, date of birth, occupation, and even about what he'd brought for self-defense. Dropping it off on the desk behind him, he took a moment to address the girl behind the applicant leader. Whether that was due to the less than impressed look she was wearing or not, Siro was kind of hoping remained unsaid.

"You're next little lady. You're...?"

"Sagiri Akamine. Of course, you could always you know, check the forms or the photo ID stuck to it if you don't believe me."

She gives off a frustrated sigh and crosses her arms, clearly just wanting to get everything over with. Siro, unable to help himself, looks over with a sly smirk across his face. At first glance, she wasn't exactly the most overly bubbly or friendly person, and even before he ponders the idea and reads the look in her eyes, it hits him that Sagiri really wasn't entirely that way no matter how well you got to know her. It'd been countless years since they first met in grade school, with a pair of stupid kids being kids trying to pick a fight with her. When Siro punched one in the face for sprouting off racial slurs at her like he'd never even heard of Japan, the young girl's first response to him was just to simply tell him _"I could've taken them!"_ and shoot a mildly annoyed glare in his direction. Sagiri was the type who always thought the best way to solve problems was to just go do it, which kind of clashed at times with Siro's own tendency to get caught up on the minor details while missing bigger ones. Of course, her having the bluntness of a baseball bat, insistence on making him bite the bullet, or her seeming inability to be anything but sharp as a tack didn't mean she was crazy or heartless. The reality of the situation was that it meant any time she heard him out or gave him her opinion, it was going to be exactly what she thought, for better or worse.

With an unintentional snicker finding itself sneaking out from his throat and an oh-so-close attempt at hiding it from Sagiri, he catches his best friend cocking her eyebrow at him as if asking _"Now what's so funny?"_. Yeah, she may have been snarky, upfront, and sometimes more spontaneous than Siro felt comfortable with, but at the end of the day...asking Sagiri Akamine to come with him on this whole experience was always going to be a no-brainer. That being said though, he still questioned why she thought so highly of dark purple and black that she insisted on wearing that short sleeved mini-jacket and headband of hers around. However, since the damned brown zip-up vest he was wearing over his t-shirt was her idea, he wasn't about to risk a beatdown by saying anything now.

Finally finished with the paperwork, and checking his watch as if wishing it was break time, the guard that Siro decided to creatively dub 'Guardman' lackadaisically drops Sagiri's paperwork on the desk alongside Siro's with almost a 'plop'. Letting out a sigh, he motions over to the bored-looking guy next to Siro that's fidgeting with the strings on his faded navy blue hoodie almost like he was trying way too hard to seem like he was 'just chilling out'.

"Okay wiseguy, you're last, so let's just get this over with. Name."

Lowering the hood, and looking over with a shrug and an ever so slightly cocky smirk on his face, the young man eventually decides to respond.

"Oh, you mean me, right? I'm Seth Braddox, don't get all worked up, now."

Growing increasingly exasperated, Guardman mutters unintelligibly under his breath as he flips through the pages and curses the his superior for sticking him on the same shift this 23 year old smartass decides to show up on. He didn't normally let himself be bothered by the entrants on their way in, but between the young punk in the hoodie that thought he was clever, and the girl who was just begging for the chance to call him out, he wished they'd just be something simple like some wannabe cultists or petty criminals. At this point the smelly old homeless people trying to become entrants just because they know about the food and supply deliveries inside would be an incredibly welcome alternative.

As he lets the last set of paperwork fall onto the other two to complete the set, the guard motions for the armed soldiers in the room to come closer.

"Now, you probably know we have to do this if you actually took the time to read over and watch everything you were supposed to...as surprised as I'd be by that, but we've got to take and give your weapons a final check. We can't have you going crazy and shooting things up in here. If you want to do that or start switching up who uses what, you'll get plenty of chances once you're inside. And if you try anything, then these fine gentlemen here would be more than happy to shut that right down. Since we're all on the same page here, if you could give me that rifle on your back there, Mr. Leader, that'd be just peachy."

Cautiously biting on his lower lip, the young man glances back around the room. His eyes fall on the soldiers that are busy doing their best making it clear they won't take 'no' as an answer, and then his friends that may have been a tiny bit on the crazy side for following him in. Letting out a sigh, and an accepting "Fine", he removes the sniper rifle hanging over his shoulders by its strap and passes it over. It was a little shorter than what he guessed the average was, and didn't have the 'oomph' some did on account of being a little older and semi-automatic, but he was just glad for something that would help him scout around if he needed to.

"And that hammer too". The guard still had his hand out and pointed towards Siro's belt. He'd brought the brick hammer with him to remind him of home and the time he spent through college working on more masonry projects than he could remember. Honestly, he hadn't really thought of it as a weapon, but Siro couldn't really deny it could crack somebody's skull, and he grudgingly unhooked it and passed that over as well before stepping off to the side.

Motioning over to Sagiri, with a sort of preemptive frustration, Guardman quietly groans to himself, trying to just not think about the headache he can feel building up.

"Look miss, we don't need to make this difficult, just pass over those knife-things and we can move this along."

"Kunai" Sagiri replied as she rolled her eyes and cast what was almost simultaneously an annoyed and disappointed gaze in Guardman's direction.

"...What?"

"They're not 'knife-things', they're called Kunai" she started, letting that 'I collect sharp pointy things you know' side of hers that Siro sometimes tried to forget about shine through. "I mean, with all the groups and weapons passing through here you're trying to tell me you don't even know that?"

"See, you can't be talking bad about a ninja's weapons like that, man. They get really pissed when you pull that crap." Gritting his teeth, as a sort of 'not again' response, Siro looks over to see Seth-totally-not-a-wiseass-Braddox wearing a grin that made him seem as proud of himself as a cat catching a bird. This was far from the time for Seth to be playing around like that, and nothing good ever came out of him doing it.

"Seth, don't even start with that 'ninja' shit right now or I promise you're not going to be walking straight for a month."

Sagiri's glare seemed to not just go right towards Seth, but like it was wanting to pierce right through him, stick him up against the nearest wall, and start cracking ribs like they were twigs. In what Siro though was a rather fortunate case of reading the room and situation, Seth took the time to try and back down from his statement and bow out gracefully. At least, as gracefully as those eyes of hers would let him. It was true that most of Sagiri's vitriol and outright sharpness tended to get geared at Siro, but every now and then Seth couldn't resist setting her off by calling her a 'ninja'. Yeah, she knew he was just saying it to try and set her off, but it was one of those things that really did get grating if he got carried away and overused it. There was an odd fascination Sagiri always appeared to have with knives, or other bladed objects that led to her setting aside a room just to store them all in. Siro knew her kunai always seemed to be her favourite just from the sheer quantity of both types and total she kept, as well as a long-winded explanation she gave on the way in about how she would've brought more if they wouldn't slow her down.

Sensing he was again being ignored, Guardman took the opportunity to break up the bizarre silence and his thoughts that the trio would be lucky if they even lasted two days by clearing his throat. And just like that, everybody found themselves brought back down to the equally odd world known as reality.

"Knives, Kunai, or whatever they're called, you still have to pass them over now before I let you through."

Unbuckling the sheath belt she was wearing, Siro's knife-collecting best friend passes it over, as it finds itself landing on a conveyor belt with a number of 'clank' sounds with the sniper rifle that had been passed over previously following it, after finally leaving the guard's hand. The trio's eyes followed the belt's movements as the weapons passed through a machine that seemed to be scanning them for...something as they soon disappeared around a corner.

Taking note that he was the only one who still had his weapon on him, Seth detached the holster carrying his pistol, and held it out to be passed over without giving so much as a word. Whether Seth was getting anxious, thought the soldiers looked a little on the trigger happy side and wanted to go and try to avoid any sort of trouble, or actually didn't have anything to say for once Siro couldn't be sure. It was too bad that Guardman couldn't resist trying to get some verbal jabs of his own in as the conveyor belt started taking it to join the others' weapons.

"Hold on, smartass. You were talking all sorts of shit to me earlier, and all you were bringing in was a Beretta? I would've thought you had something special, but no, just a common, boring handgun. No wonder you were trying to be witty to compensate. I hope your buddies are good at watching your back, or you're not gonna last, kid."

Seth simply just crossed his arms and slowly shook his head like he was almost bored of answering what he must have felt was an constant question.

"Not all of us get some cool rifle passed down to them, or spend 8 years hoarding pointy things, Guardy. Firearms aren't exactly cheap these days on entry-level salary, you know. I can still make someone screw off and leave me alone without shooting a million rounds a minute."

Having had his fill, the guard heads towards the next room and motions for the trio to follow. He'd been at the job for 5 years, but still there were times when he wondered if people got passed through the system because they would actually make things interesting, or just because the contestant count was starting to drop down again. Maybe they'd actually be entertaining for a while instead of getting killed off by that nut-job like everybody else seemed to. That alone would probably be interesting enough, he thinks.

Soldiers in tow, the group proceeds to make their way into the next set of doors and through a scanner. Guardman had briefly given them an explanation that it was to make sure they weren't still hiding or carrying any additional weapons on them that could lead to them trying to shoot or blow up the entire station, or anything like that. He actually could remember one instance where a rather disturbed individual quite literally pulled a concealed switchblade out of his ass and tried to go after the staff. Nobody wanted to risk having that sort of shit-show happen again, that was for sure.

Eventually they came to a smaller room with a couple of technicians and what looked to be an elevator against the back wall, with its gray doors not really doing much to paint a pleasant picture. A series of tables appeared to be covered with what ultimately looked like fancy bracelets or wristbands still getting adjusted. Siro could feel a lump starting to form in his throat as his eyes went from the wristbands to the elevator doors. Through the aid of monitors hanging from the ceiling, and what appeared to be a couple of small windows on the back wall, he could see the sunlight and an outline of what lay below them. He realizes this would likely have been the point where many an individual immediately had second thoughts and backed out. The reality was that this was proving to be more difficult than he thought even for somebody like himself who was sure and confident in his steps and of his destination. It almost made the squad leader shudder as he wondered how the people who came in alone and got stuck trying to form squads simply to get by once they were in the city limits must have felt trying to approach such a rather intimidating set of circumstances.

Looking over his shoulder, he spots Sagiri looking both focused and appearing to be not at all phased by the impending danger awaiting them. There's no way, Siro thinks to himself, that she isn't feeling just a little bit anxious or nervous about all of this. If she was though, then she was a hell of a lot better at keeping her composure than he or even Seth had ever been. For one reason or another, that thought made him uneasy and almost concerned. They weren't going to have the luxury of second guessing or taking all day trying to decide where to go once they got in. Far too many times they'd seen group after group be unable to even get their footing after getting inside, making them easy pickings for other squads, being stuck entirely at their mercy. And that was just if they got lucky.

"Almost done, just line up over here."

The guard spoke with a less than subtle hint of relief in his voice as he led the trio over to the table next to where the technicians were working. Seth had muttered something under his breath about "dirt brown being the new white coat", but honestly Siro was so occupied with trying to keep his composure, he only heard it distantly.

"You're all familiar with these wristbands, bracelets, monitors, or whatever you want to call them over here from earlier, but just in case some of you conveniently forgot to pay attention, I'll give you the run down again. These have a built in GPS tracker on them, giving you a map of the city and relaying your position back to us. They also monitor your heart rate, keep track of any money or other prizes you've picked up since entering, and it has a nice little display showing date, time, and how many are left in the squad. Yes, they're entirely waterproof and heat resistant, yes breaking them or trying to remove them gets you instantly DQ'd and voids anything you won, and yes if your squad size drops to 2 or lower, it'll sound off and trigger a timer. If you can't find anybody willing to team up with you before it hits zero, then well...you're also DQ'd, so tough luck. You also got nifty little heart monitors inserted around your neck and collarbone area just in case you piss somebody in there, say little miss crazy, off enough to get your arm chopped."

"It's more like you just stabbed us in the neck with the damn things. I'm pretty sure I wasn't supposed to bleed that much..." Seth retorts, surprisingly coming across as more frustrated than either of his two friends thought was normal.

Trying to avoid letting the only slightly sly remark get in the way of his job, Guardman clears his throat to finish the explanation.

"When you get down the elevator and through the first door, you can pick up your weapons, or don't, I don't really care, before carrying on. One you're through that second door though, you'll be inside the compound walls, and on your own. I should tell you guys, this is your last chance. Once the monitors are on your left wrists and you've ridden that elevator, you're in there until you try and take advantage of one of the cashing out periods. Until then, you're stuck, so if you've got last minute cold feet, now's the time to say so."

In spite of all of the tuning out he'd been doing, Siro heard those last words as clear as day. Last chance. If he went even a little bit further with things, that would be it. There would be no turning back, Siro would be committed. As he eyes over the people who are not just his friends, but his squadmates now, the thought sinks into the young leader's mind that they would be too. That would include Seth, who gives a quick wink as if to say _"We got this"_ , and as he looks over at Sagiri actually giving him a smile of reassurance, it hits him that it includes her too. It's more than that though, Siro realizes. They're ready, and they're up for it, so he has to be too.

Siro extends his arm out onto the table.

"We're good, we didn't fill out a phone book's worth of paperwork just to run away now."

_**Click.** _

The watch-sized bracelet closes around his wrist, and he makes his way over to the elevator as he both waits and tries to fight off the imaginary butterflies fluttering around his stomach.

_**Click.** _

Sagiri follows without even bothering to give Guardy so much as a second look.

_**Click.** _

Sarcastically muttering to himself about the bracelet being too tight, Seth walks over to rejoin the other two. The guard takes the moment to go just the next couple of steps past them and press the button to summon the elevator.

"Well, from here on out, the only help you'll get from us is what you can scrape up from our supply drops. Good luck in there, everybody's going to be watching."

_**Bing!** _

The noise caught the trio's attention as the elevator doors slid open and they slowly made their way inside. _"This is it"_ Siro thinks, taking one last moment to brace himself.

"By the way..." Guardman starts as if he remembered something. "I meant to ask earlier. Since everybody's trying to do it to stand out these days, and I remember you talking about registering one, do you guys have a squad name?"

Siro smiles to himself as he recollects the discussion the three of them had earlier among themselves, as an idea works its way back into his mind.

"Oh yeah, I almost forgot."

With a quick moment of pondering and Sagiri cocking an eyebrow at him as the elevator doors started to close, Siro turns back to the guard and answers him.

"Triple S."

* * *

** Next Chapter - City of Greed: **

_With their heads held high, and their resolve reaffirmed, the group finds themselves in the belly of the beast. Seeing things firsthand unfiltered without the edited touch they're oh-so-used to being provided, means agreeing on a game plan proves almost impossible. And in a place where everybody is driven by their own avarice and desires, trusting anyone may show to be even tougher._


	3. City of Greed

_**Bing!** _

Slowly, the elevator doors creak open, accompanied by a slight chime as if it were telling its occupants to get out. As the trio exits and the doors slide closed behind them, a moment of silence follows as they scout the room the room they were now currently occupying. That silence proved to be fleeting, as it was quickly broken up.

"Siro...what the hell was that back there?"

Hands in his pockets, he breaks from his stride to look over his right shoulder, only finding himself perplexed at the less than thrilled look Sagiri happened to be wearing on her face.

"Wait, what was what? I didn't even do anything."

"You didn't forget when I said that you leading was fine as long as Seth and I got to name the squad, did you?"

Scratching the back of his head, Siro's confusion gradually gives way to the realization of why she was wound up all of a sudden. She'd given Siro the rundown on how they had to make sure they didn't wind up being seen as some kind of joke or the laughing stock of not just the city, but the game itself before they registered. Her whole reasoning was about how nobody was going to want to work together with them, or align with them on common ground if they weren't taken seriously or respected by anybody in there. And even though the whole production group running things were supposed to be entirely impartial, Sagiri didn't fully trust them not to indirectly get them unwanted attention if they had no interest.

"Okay, okay, look. I know you wanted to do the whole 'Triple Threat' thing because we have that short, medium, and long range bit going for us, and that's cool, but I just wanted to improve it a bit. I mean, it makes sense since our names all start with 'S', and the 'Threat' part's implied, so it's like saying we're all threats too. It just came to me, okay?"

Her arms now crossed in reaction, she looks up at the ceiling and lets out an exasperated sigh while Seth simply takes a pair of quiet steps to the side. His smirk being far from lost on either the leader, or the young woman in front of him who may or may not have needed to refocus her priorities.

"So you thought if you made it into a bad play on words, you'd sound clever? Oh for the love of...listen, Siro. If we're not on the same page all the time, we're going to get eaten alive in there. Hell, maybe literally for all I know. You can't just impulsively change things up without letting us know if-"

"You lecturing somebody for being impulsive? Damn, that's a new one." Seth slipped out, unable to resist the opportunity.

"...I'm letting that slide, Seth, don't interrupt me." Sagiri shot back sharply. "Like I was saying, I get that it's not dangerous right now, but we're risking our lives just by going in there. If you're thinking of doing some stupid shit, let us know first so we can talk you out of it."

A deep breath and a quiet 'sorry' escapes him as Siro finds himself unable to resist looking slightly downwards while he walks towards the newly spotted metal door across from the elevator. The room itself was rather small and empty, devoid of both other people and the weapons they'd brought with them. Although it seemed slightly odd to him at first, with how many people there had been accompanying them before they were even on the actual site, it was likely just a connecting point between the elevator and the city entrance. This suspicion was further supported when he noticed a button with a rather easily understandable 'press for access' sign above it in more different languages than any of the trio was familiar with.

"Since apparently I need to get my thoughts and plans out more clearly, I'm pressing the button to get through here and want you guys to follow me." Taking a page from Seth's book as he does so, Siro motions the other two over before pressing the button. Even though he noticed Sagiri was trying her hardest not to just tell him 'fuck you', at least he knew that she could tell he got her point. At least, that was what he told himself as a buzzer went off and she went through the newly unlocked door ahead of him before he'd finished even opening it.

What followed was a more fortified looking room with solid steel sliding doors accompanied by some kind of flip switch on the far wall across from them. Siro could spot what looked like their weapons on some sort of modified luggage claim not too different from those sort of things you'd see at airports, albeit on a smaller scale. There still appeared to be no one in sight besides the three of them, giving off an oddly oppressive atmosphere of sorts. He could feel his stomach clench and tighten a little as the faint sounds outside of the door filled his ears, and a slight smell that reminded him of a mix of gunpowder and smoke seeped in. Looking back, he could tell Sagiri and Seth noticed it too. As Siro slowly picked up his rifle and his hammer, the realization once again came to him that as soon as they went through those doors they'd be inside the city, and every hour might as well be a roll of the dice.

Looking over to his right, he saw Seth displaying almost a scowl of disappointment after picking up and examining his beretta. Momentarily pausing before deciding to ignore the less than subtle complaints about the staff 'scratching up his pistol' that his normally sarcastic comrade was muttering, Siro turns his attention to a now silent Sagiri. The amount of focus she had as she went over each of her kunai one by one just in case they'd received even the slightest hint of a scratch or dent on the way down was almost disturbing. Sure, he knew that she was just being thorough, but the way that her gaze fell over them as she checked wasn't something Siro had seen before. It was almost as if she was checking them like they were her children. Her oh-so-slightly sharp and dangerous children. Not that he'd ever be stupid enough to say it, of course.

Biting his lip so hard that he has to stop from drawing blood, he takes a step towards the door to their left as whatever knot had been in his stomach felt like it'd progressed all the way up to his chest. With a glance backwards to ensure they'd grabbed everything that the three of them brought with them, Siro jerks his head towards the door and steels himself.

"Hey...are you guys ready?"

Adjusting the hood on his faded blue sweater, Seth playfully pats Siro on the left shoulder and lets out a (possibly semi-forced) laugh.

"Come on man, it's us, you know we're good to go. We're more worried about you being ready. Otherwise I would've flipped that thing and let that alarm you forgot to notice snap you out of your daydreaming earlier."

Unable to help from smiling a little, with his arm extended to pull down the switch, he turns to his right to make eye contact with Sagiri, as if seeking the green light to go. One that he knows she'll give even before she nods her approval. And with that, he flipped the switch to unlock and open the door.

_**BWEEEEE!** _

_**BWEEEEE!** _

_**BWEEEEE!** _

The warning alarm began to go off, telling them rather clearly to step back as a red light flashed off and on above the doorway. He wasn't sure what else it was, but Siro almost thought that he'd heard the sound of a large metal shutter opening on the other side. Neither of them were really quite sure how long the entire event lasted. What felt like minutes was most likely 10 seconds at absolute most, but after it seemed the sound of the alarm would never leave their minds, the doors slid open in front of them, exposing the group to the clouds and city ahead. As the shutter closed behind them, he looked up to find a number of seemingly remote controlled turrets and soldiers on what seemed to be constant standby looming overhead. However, that wasn't what caught them off guard.

It was the smell.

They'd seen on TV how parts of the compound had trouble with electricity, or how even with people somehow setting up makeshift businesses to try and get a few extra bucks and stick around more, certain supplies seemed to always be in high demand. There was no surprise at how damaged some of the buildings had been as a result of what was 25 years of almost constant fighting, but this...this was something else. As much as the footage and recaps that they'd seen for ages before coming here had tried to capture the look of the city, none of it could capture the feeling of actually being in there, or the sense of nausea that filled you the moment you first breathed in the air.

He'd been right earlier to notice the smell of gunpowder, but it was more than just a smell of that, it was more than just the smell of smoke. Even this edge of the city that they were standing on smelled of blood, of charred hair and scorched skin from the flames they could almost see in the distance. In no uncertain terms, it was the smell of death. And as they walked slowly and cautiously forward, it took Siro a rather short period of time to notice that the people who were 'sleeping' to their left weren't going to be waking up again. There was no reason or way that people would have decided to try and come back the way they'd left though. Everything was sealed off behind them. " _Unless..."_ , Siro thinks to himself, _"They never made it past here at all."_.

"All right! Fresh meat again! I thought she got 'em all today."

The voice breaks Siro's concentration like a baseball through a window, and makes the trio instantly spin hard to their right. Initially uncertain of where the male voice came from exactly, Siro spots a man stepping out from behind what almost looks like a metal dumpster, knocking on it to get their attention as he walks oh so slowly towards them.

Even before she can get a proper glimpse, he notices Sagiri narrow her eyes in the man's direction and tense up, doing little to hide her almost instant distaste for the stranger in front of them. He was a big on the scraggly side, Siro thought, with dried blood around the bottom of his grey jeans, and a worn leather jacket that made him look not too different from some kind of 40 year old biker. The beard on his face was uneven and patchy, and appeared to already be starting to grey. Slowly, he continued walking towards them, his hands up like some sort of mock offering of peace. Still, the fact that he'd already called them 'fresh meat' wasn't exactly putting Siro's mind at ease.

"Relax everybody, I'm just here to talk. You know, make some friendly chitchat, be all buddy buddy, maybe even see what you guys brought in to help me out."

His tone was calm, but there was a disingenuous air about his mannerisms. He wasn't somebody that the group remembered seeing from the live web streams, or the recap episodes on TV. Despite being some sort of self-proclaimed expert on this kind of thing, Seth didn't really seem to know anything either. And that wasn't even taking into account him being alone.

"What about the rest of your group though? It's nice of you to not want to start anything and all, but nobody gets to manage in here by themselves though. That's just how the rules go, isn't it?" Siro asked cautiously, pointing to the display on his wrist, as the man stopped in front of he and Sagiri.

"Oh right, right of course. You see, they're out recruiting, just like me. Officially you can only have so many people in a group, but if you get a bunch of groups working together unofficially, you get as many as you want. It's a pretty simple deal, really. You go get the supply drops they bring in for us, and we use it to pay off other squads so they leave you alone. I'm thinking you guys don't have any deals right now, so it's win-win."

The offer seemed more fishy than the older man had likely intended it to, which was kind of telling considering what Siro thought he was trying to offer him. Realistically, the three of them would wind up taking on all the risk and the work, while this guy and his buddies just got to split everything up and relax. Not to mention, he sensed more than just a little bit of a threatening undertone to his words.

"So really, you just want us to be slave labour for you guys so you don't try to kill us, right? Does that about cover it?"

The man crosses his arms and gets almost a disappointed look across his face as if he'd expected them to simply agree without even asking any questions. It was just making things look more likely that his guess was right on the money when it came to the creep's intentions.

"Now, now, don't say it like that. When you put it that way it sounds all sinister. I'm not the bad guy here, you know. Besides, if I'd wanted to kill you guys..."

He extends his arm and lightly put his hand on Sagiri's throat, as if to mime choking her.

Without thinking, Siro lunged forward.

"Get the hell away from her!"

His fist flies forward, catching the man in the side of the jaw and knocking him down onto the cracked pavement as he lets go of her neck. For a moment, Siro actually holds his position while his mind takes the time to catch up with and process his body just acting on its own. That is, it would, if somebody else didn't respond first.

"Goddammit, Siro!"

Looking over to his right, he finds Sagiri glaring at him angrily, her eyes piercing more than any of her knives or weapons could hope to be. In the time between Siro punching the man, and her yelling at him, she'd jumped to the side, while Seth had stayed on Siro's left and just glanced down shaking his head with a look that just had 'you messed up' written all over it.

"Wh-what? I was just trying to stop him from strangling you! Look Sagiri, I seriously thought he was going to-!"

"He was just screwing with us, dumbass!" She snaps back, her eyes showing disbelief and surprisingly only a hint of rage. Truthfully, he liked to think his friend was holding back on that since she knew his actions were done with good intentions, but both his brain and mouth knew better than to try and interrupt her to press the issue. "What if he was lying about being alone? What if he's armed? I get what you were doing, but you've gotta think. If I didn't think I had it under control, I would've decked him myself."

Feeling slightly embarrassed at not giving her the benefit of the doubt, Siro's gaze shifts over to the ground by his feet. Was it true that she could've handled things on her own if it came to that? Probably. Could she have had a better read on the situation than him? It was certainly possible. Even so, he wasn't really comfortable with chancing anything on 'if', and certainly not when she was involved. She could keep yelling at him later if she felt inclined to do so, but when he looked back to her and told her "Sorry, you're right", he knew that neither of them thought he fully regretted punching the man.

Sagiri regains her composure after a moment of silence, before trying to get her head back into the situation at hand. "Let's just get going. I don't want to be hanging around the entrance all day."

_**Click.** _

_**Click.** _

"Uh...guys?"

Seth spoke up, his voice seemingly having an oh so slight bit of concern in it as Siro soon realized what he'd forgotten.

The man in front of them was back up. His jaw still looking sore from Siro's punch, and his demeanor changed entirely, he had a pair of handguns pointed straight at Siro and Seth. It didn't take a psychic to guess that they were most likely loaded. They'd seemingly been modified somewhat though, as they had forward face blades welded on under the barrels, almost like some miniature version of the old bayonets infantry used to have. The tinge of curiosity on if the guy was their original owner was however quickly replaced with Siro thinking that just maybe he should have really waited to act, followed by thoughts of _'Too late for that now'_.

Spitting out a few drops of blood, and with his patience now wearing more thin than melting ice, he makes his intentions known without any further delays.

"That's how you guys are going to be, huh? I tried being nice and you pulled a stupid stunt like that. Let's make this simple. Hand over your weapons or I swear I'll blow both of your damn brains out."

Exchanging glances with each other following quite possibly the least veiled threat of all time, the two friends almost freeze up momentarily. Siro considered himself far from familiar with knowing the feeling of peering down the end of a gun barrel pointed right between your eyes, which he thought was a fair consideration to have considering that this was certainly a first. Sagiri was right though, and as he realized just how serious the man was, a sickening, sinking feeling crept over him.

"I didn't even do anything though, man..." Seth almost stammered out, in a tone that suggested he thought he'd said it too quietly for the man to hear. He didn't.

Eyes starting to bulge out as he threatened pulling the triggers, the creep in the leather jacket's face starts to turn as red as a fresh tomato. "Smartass, slide that pistol over first, then get dumbass to pass me that rifle. Now!"

Finally getting the slightly obvious hint that he should probably just shut up and do what he's told, Seth slowly unclips his beretta and its holster before sliding it along the cracked and bumpy ground towards the thug's feet. It took Siro what felt like forever to remove the rifle that was hanging over his back. All he could think about was the idea of everything just ending there and then, him dying before even getting a chance to begin, before he could prove that this would be worth it. And the thought of the bullets shredding him and Seth's insides apart was a visual that remained even as he slowly slid it halfway across the concrete to him and looked the man in the eyes.

"Okay, okay, here. You've got our guns now, alright?" Siro started, taking an extra step back. "So, that means you won't kill us, and we can go like you said..."

Tilting his head, and moving the part of his jaw that was sure to start bruising any time now, the guy before them smiles to himself and gives almost a sort of quiet laugh without so much as even breaking eye contact. There was something most unsettling about it though, and Siro didn't find himself feeling any more relaxed or at ease than he had earlier. In fact, it almost seemed fair to say that he felt even more anxious and concerned than previously. Something about this guy didn't exactly give off vibes that suggested it was what one would call a 'smile of comfort'.

"You've got me all wrong, pal." He started, as he kept his aim on Seth and Siro, even as he slightly lowered the handguns. "I'm just not going to blow your heads off now."

Seth holds his hands out in front of him, as the realization hits him, almost as if trying to call some kind of time out as he does so. "Wait, wait, wait, let's not get carried away here."

Unfortunately, Seth's words seemed to reach deaf ears as he simply continued.

"I'm still going to kill you, that's for sure. I'm just unload on you everywhere else instead before - urk!"

A kunai appeared lodged in the lower part of the man's throat, forcing him to drop his guns and fall down to his knees.

As dark red blood began pouring from the deep wound, Siro spun his gaze around to see Sagiri standing there. Her arm was still partially extended, and her face blank as she just stared ahead at the man in front of them as he struggled vainly to try and breathe. With both how tense the situation was, and with an almost overwhelming worry that he was about to die, Siro had almost forgotten about his best friend being only slightly to the side of them.

"...Sagiri?"

She didn't answer. As he tried to look at her again, she turns her head and looks down, either refusing or unable to make eye contact with him. The sounds of choking and gurgling as their attempted killer bled out and choked on his own blood before finally succumbing to his injury did no favours to things either. He wasn't sure just how long the middle aged man's final moments had lasted, but Siro knew one thing. The entirety of the scene would be an event that he would never forget.

For what seemed like an eternity, the trio stood there. Silent in the realization of not just what had happened, but of what kind of place this city truly was. They'd thought that simply watching it on TV had given them an idea, they thought that they understood when they first stepped foot out through the doors. This was a place where as soon as you thought you had things figured out, it would creep up and show you just how little you knew. Gradually, Sagiri walks step by step towards the body, now lying on its side before looking down solemnly.

"We should...probably take his guns with us. We'll need any edge we can get. Seth, you grab them."

Still reeling a little, Seth looks down at the handguns, then back at her again, shaking his head in confusion.

"Hold on, so what, just because I have a pistol means I should grab more? Do you think it just works like that? Hell, how are you so calm right now?"

Siro listens on Seth's question before silently thinking to himself about just how wrong he was. She wasn't calm, that much Siro knew. No matter how much she tried to hide it, Siro could tell just by looking at her. Her eyes, always full of determination, still averted their stare and wouldn't meet his. As she slowly bent down to pull her kunai out of the man's throat, her right hand was clenched up into a nervous fist, while the entirety of her left was involuntarily shaking. When she finally pulled it out and wiped the man's blood off on his jacket, she first flinched at the sound it made. And after that, she just stared down at it.

He should have been relieved to still be alive, this Siro knows. However, he can't bring himself to feel any happiness. Even though the man tried to kill him, even though he almost died, all Siro felt was a combination of deep sadness and self-loathing. It was his fault, he did this. If he'd thought before he acted, if he'd trusted that Sagiri had a handle on the situation, then maybe everything would have been different. Now a man was dead, and it was all because of his own actions that his best friend had been forced to kill him. This time it's Siro who finds himself unable to meet her gaze as he gradually approaches her.

"I'm sorry, 'Giri...I'm so, so sorry..."

His voice quiet and breaking, he doesn't know if she hears him, even though thinking she has brings some sort of minuscule kind of comfort with it. Furthermore, he doesn't know if she'll be able to forgive him. All he can do, Siro thinks, is make sure to never be that careless or impulsive again.

Quietly, she removes the man's gun holsters and slides the bladed pistols back inside. Sagiri motions a somewhat reluctant Seth over to claim them as he collects his own beretta. Remembering that he still has yet to retrieve his rifle, Siro turns around and picks it up by the strap, hanging it over his shoulder for the time being while he tries to gather his thoughts again.

"We should get going." Sagiri says, slowly standing up and putting the kunai back into its holder before looking over her shoulder. "He might've had friends nearby, and I don't think we want to be here to meet them."

With a slow nod and neither of them disagreeing with her logic, Seth and Siro find themselves taking one last look at the corpse by their feet before following her down the streets to try and put some distance between themselves and their current location.

* * *

In an alleyway adjacent to the trio, a figure watches them pass in silence. A spectator with front row seats to the recent events that just transpired. It's another day, and just another poor sucker biting the dust, she thinks. Any excitement is good though, and as she grips the blade in her hand and turns back down the alley to go finish her 'work' for the afternoon, she can't help but grin in anticipation.

* * *

** Next Chapter - The Crimson Raven:  
**

_With reality setting in, and the uncertainty of how to proceed being all too troubling, the group decides to try and pool their knowledge of the program to find some help. Seeking out those famous among viewers for assistance may seem a safe bet, but what happens when the infamous are the ones seeking them instead?_


	4. The Crimson Raven

An uneasy sort of silence filled the air. The explosions that rocked the distance, and the sounds of firearms serenading the streets faded from their minds like so much background chatter. Siro still struggled with finding the proper words to say in order to get his group focused on planning their next move. However, as he sees Sagiri press onward, her eyes facing forward, and Seth seemingly having gathered his thoughts again, he can't help but wonder. Maybe they're not the ones in need of focus after all. Perhaps they'd been far more aware of the harsh realities that they were facing than he ever was. The possibility was certainly there, he knew that. As their footsteps seemingly echoed along the asphalt, Siro retraces his thoughts.

Sagiri had always been the down to earth type. No matter the situation, she didn't mince her words or the meanings behind them, and she never was the kind of person to turn a blind eye to how things worked. It could at times come across as being a bit cynical or pessimistic, but she knew that things were never going to simply be all 'sunshine and rainbows'. Yes, she was hesitant to trust people, but she'd seen the program, they all had. And with what she undoubtedly saw from doing so, it was easily understandable why the only people she appeared to plan on trusting inside these walls were Seth and Siro himself.

With Seth though, things were a little different. He knew an almost ridiculous amount of information about Kuber's Compound. Sometimes the guy would even pass a couple of hours just reading and listening to interviews with the people who'd been lucky enough to cash out, as they went on about their experiences. Just the very thought of how much random and arguably useless knowledge was packed into that brain of his was both impressive, and almost a little scary. Since Seth had been familiar with it long before he introduced Siro and Sagiri to the program, there was no telling how much of it he'd actually been exposed to. Not only that, but Siro remembered a time that Seth mentioned reading up on some of the behind the scenes events to try and understand it even a little more.

Walking what their displays told them was North with a slight bearing to the West, Siro can't help but nervously and intently scan the surrounding area. Sweat dripped from his palms, and his knuckles began to whiten just from the way he gripped the strap of his rifle like his very life depended on it. From what they'd all experienced and witnessed in their short time here, one would be pretty hard pressed to try and disagree with that thought, too. The strangest thing was that Siro kept having to remind himself of the cameras both hidden and visible that were all around them. _'All of those people saw everything back there...'_ he thinks grimly, as he stares thoughtfully at the ground.

Suddenly, however, his forward momentum meets an abrupt end as he bumps into Sagiri's back and looks up to see his friend with a finger on her lips to shush them, as she points to their right towards a beat down and old looking four storey building. It was primarily brick layered, and most of the windows appeared to have long since been broken, shattered, or covered up using who knew what. Looking to almost wrap around it, was one of those old-style fire escapes from years and years ago. It was one of those styles that consisted of numerous metal ladders from what was almost one kind of balcony like platform to another. The bits of rust Siro thought he saw covering it probably meant that its best days had probably been before he was even born. As he slowly started to step towards it, curiousity getting the better of him, Siro hears a gunshot ring out through the late afternoon sky.

_**BLAM!** _

Before any of the trio can properly respond though, a second noise followed. This time it was a voice belonging to somebody who clearly seemed less than ecstatic with their current situation.

"Wait, wait, wait! I told you that's all the supplies we had! You know I wouldn't lie to you, right?"

Even without knowing the situation at hand or just what the hell was going on over there, Siro could tell fear in the man's voice, as he started instinctively walking towards the voice that seemed to be coming from the other side. Looking over his shoulder, Sagiri's eyes meet his as she shakes her head and quietly whispers at him not to do it. Meanwhile, Seth just quietly walks past Siro and heads even closer as the voice's owner continued to seemingly wish he was anywhere else right about now.

"Look, I can join up with you, right? I'll get you some that way! Everybody's doing it these days, so it all works out! Just hold on!"

While Siro knew that Sagiri had a right to be hesitant, and that very last thing he wanted was for her to wind up getting anymore blood on her hands than was absolutely necessary, he also realized things weren't quite that simple. Maybe, just maybe, if they could smooth things over and bail that guy out, he'd be open to lending them a hand. They needed allies that had been in the city for a while, people that knew the ins and outs, and the way things worked beyond what was merely shown on television or online. He'd hoped that was the reason that Seth had walked on ahead of him. At least, it was better than the alternative that he'd just been making room so Sagiri could put him in his place for being bull-headed again.

"Siro..." she started, with a quiet tone in her voice that suggested she already knew the answer to the very things that she was about to say to him. "I get it, you think if we help him, he'll be so grateful that he'll show us around the city. But are you trying to save him because you want to, or because you think you have to?"

As they got closer to the brick structure ahead of them, he wanted to tell her that she was wrong, that he was doing it just to make it so they didn't wind up getting themselves killed. The key being that he wanted to. It was true that he didn't have any desire to put them in danger again, but as he sighs and shoves his hands into his pockets, Siro knows that it's just as true he'd want someone to help the group out if they were in some deep shit. He just hopes the answer's good enough for her.

"Well...I mean, if we can get him out of this alright, then maybe we'll get a reputation as being willing to lend a hand and people will want to help us out. Wouldn't you want people to want to assist us if we need it? I know I would."

Now at the building where they heard the voices, Siro quiets himself as Seth motions him and Sagiri over. Slowly but surely, the trio edges along the wall, trying to do their best attempt at being stealthy like you'd see in one of those high suspense spy films that directors love oh-so-much. As they peak and creep their way around the corner expecting confrontation and combat, they found only silence.

And a trio of bodies in the middle of the alleyway as they looked around nervously. They hadn't seen or heard anybody leave, Siro was sure of that, but he didn't know what to make of this. There was only a single gunshot, which might have killed the long haired man who looked to have been bleeding out of the side of his head. What about the other two though? Or the man who'd been pleading after everything? Sagiri takes a couple of steps forward to try and investigate.

_**THUNK!** _

A man's body drops down in front of them. His sweatshirt is torn in the chest as blood oozes out of an almost freshly made slash wound, while the last of an almost gurgling sound escapes it as more crimson pours like a stream from a similar injury on his throat. Perhaps most unsettling however, is the involuntary twitching movements and spasms it briefly performs. What was most likely mere seconds passed as if it were far longer as the body finally became still. Stunned silence filled the air as Siro and his friends could do nothing but just stare. By the time that even Sagiri, quick witted as she was, had realized they needed to look for the assailant, it was too late and their thoughts were already interrupted.

"Helloooo, new blood!"

With the hair standing up on the back of his neck, Siro turns his head and his gaze upwards to the fire escape above them, looking for the voice's owner.

It was a girl.

She looked a few years younger than either Siro, Seth, or even Sagiri, and her demeanour seemed to have a disturbing childlike tone to it. Her hair, longer, black, and messy hung just over the top of her eyes. As for her clothes? They seemed a variety of fits and sizes. An open and long gray coat with its sleeves cut off that looked a bit big. A black sleeveless shirt with a red skull in the center, that looked a size too small and exposed part of her navel, torn jean shorts with a loose fitting studded belt, and something so ripped that Siro couldn't tell if they once resembled leggings or fishnets. Her short hiking boots, faded and stained with what looked like dried blood were the closest thing to normal about her. However, there was something unsettling about those blue eyes of hers.

That wasn't what caught his attention though. His eyes moved past the revolver holstered on the right side of her waist, and to her left hand. Beyond the ratty black and red striped hand warmer that covered her wrist, was a handheld sickle with a thin chain extending from the bottom of its handle with its end fastened around the left side of her hips. A sickle that was currently getting a fresh coat of blood wiped off of it. Siro feels his stomach clench as a sense of recognition and almost familiarity comes over him. One that Seth's nervous glance does nothing to quell.

"New blood? You mean us, right?" He asks nervously, doing his damnedest to keep his eyes on her.

"Bingo! Gold star, kiddo!" The girl's lips part into a grin, and she fakes a bow as her sickle dangles slightly from the chain she's switched to holding. "I know everything, everyone, and every itty bitty little drop zone for those fancy supply and money crates they're always dropping in here. Welcome to my city!"

From behind him, Siro swears he can hear Seth worriedly cussing and muttering under his breath. Unable to make out the entire thing, Siro merely catches bits and pieces of it. Between the repeated use of the word 'shit', and the less than thrilled near pleas of 'not her...', not to mention her outright creepy enthusiasm, he was starting to regret walking into the alley. So much so, that he almost didn't notice that when she resumed speaking again, she'd actually cut off the beginning of a question Sagiri was in the middle of asking, like Siro's friend wasn't even there.

"Where are my manners? A girl like me's gotta introduce herself! You see, these pretty little eyes belong to the fabulous lady of the compound. I'm the founder and leader of the most wondrous and chart topping squad this city over, the Crimson Ravens! That's right ladies and gentlemen, it's the face that runs the place. Compound born and compound raised, say it with me fans, this bitch is here to stay! You are now in the presence of the one they call Delta!"

Her mannerisms and speaking patterns were just a little bit more over the top than Siro had been expecting. He'd seen and heard things from recaps and the live feeds, but there was always the thought in his mind that it might have been oh-so-slightly edited to make her seem more out there than she actually was. As she clips her sickle back onto her belt, leaving the chain dangling slightly, and places a hand on the fire escape's railing, Siro picks up that to Delta this whole thing might just be some sort of game. She seemed more aware than any of them that they were being broadcast over both national and international television, and the fact she seemed to enjoy playing things up for the audience made him take a step back. The thing was though, everybody had heard of her, this much was for certain. Perhaps that was something that he could try to use to his advantage and get her to give them a break. Or, he ponders, at least not try to kill them on sight.

Siro turns to Seth and Sagiri to try and keep the volume down as he explains his idea.

"Hear me out, maybe if we play nice and go along or try and get in her good books she'll keep us out of trouble for a bit. The Crimson Ravens are probably the most well known group in here, right? I mean yeah Delta's a little odd, but maybe she can keep people away from us, or even just leave us alone, right?"

"Are you crazy?!" Nearly immediately after the words have left Siro's mouth, Seth almost yells at him in a bewildered tone that does more than suggest he'd want to smack some sense into their squad leader there and then. It's even enough to get Delta's attention from above them as she cocks an eyebrow and looks down. "Did you forget WHY they're so well known, Siro? Delta Sherrpan is a goddamn deranged psycho! You think someone who's been in this place since they were a baby would be rational? She's barely 20 and they don't even know how many people she's taken out on the live feeds. Literally everything she owns she stole from people she killed. And if she's here, then chances are her two little-!"

"Hey! We're not on a last name basis yet, Sethy!" Delta protests, breaking up Seth's rebuttal. "It's not stealing if they're dead! They're not using them anymore, and poor, little defenceless me's gotta defend herself, right? And don't call my guys 'little'! They're all strong and tall and super tough!"

_**BLAM!** _

She breaks her response to fire so casually and quickly that by the time Siro notices what she reacted to, the revolver was already almost all the way back into its holster. One of the men in the pile of bodies had still been alive, albeit just barely. They'd reached a shaking arm out to try and weakly pull themselves away, but they hardly got partly out from the other bodies before getting struck back down again. The situational awareness she had, even while clearly messing around was in actuality kind of scary to consider. Seth hadn't been kidding when he said she'd likely killed countless numbers of people, and that she was treating finishing off the 4 next to them as just another day at the office, made Siro think that maybe, just maybe, he'd grossly underestimated how she was.

"Besides," Delta continued, holding her fingers up to count, as if nothing had even happened. "1. I'm 19, not 20. Don't go aging me up! 2. You can't interrupt me before I get to introduce my partners. The audience is gonna be soooo pissed, you know? Gareth, Emmy, come on down! You're the next contestants on 'Let's say hi'! That window's not just for looking!"

In a display of grudging compliance and semi-annoyance, two men stepped out from the window behind Delta with almost bored looks on their faces. Honestly, Siro wasn't exactly what you'd call shocked by their appearance, and strangely enough not having to worry about where they might be hiding anymore gave him some sort of bizarre quasi-comfort. Nonetheless, despite the expressions on their faces, they still stepped across the fire escape to stand by their leader.

"I can't believe you still do this goddamn show every single time you meet someone, boss...".

One of them mused over the girl's antics as he scratched at the red stubble growing around his mouth and chin. He was of average height and a thicker build when compared to most people, and he wore an old faded and dirty baseball jersey for some team Siro wasn't familiar with. The grey patterned cap on his head seemed to hide either very little or no hair underneath it, and the metal bat in his right hand looked like it was layered with a rather generous amount of rusty nails that had been welded right onto it for maximum effect. It looked like he had some kind of grenades or explosives along his belt, but from his position below, it was hard for Siro to fully get a clear view of just what kind they could be.

The younger looking, clean shaven man next to him let out a sigh and ran a hand through his shaggy, shoulder length hair. His dark red tank top contained some kind of black electrical style pattern throughout it, and his faded dark blue jeans were torn just above the knees. What seemed like some kind of makeshift spear was hanging down across his back, and his right hand held an uzi of some sort. Upon further inspection, the guy looked to be a little bit on the scrawny side, although not enough to really be strange or unusual. Acting like he was forcing a snicker, he looks over at his partner.

"The worst part is she normally monologues twice as fucking long, too. At least she gets your name right. It kinda kills the fun if I keep having to tell everyone it's Emilio, not 'Emmy', while she keeps acting like I'm her damn pet."

"You said you liked that, Emmy! Don't be rude in front of the newbies like that, you'll make Gareth all upset!"

Delta eerily and playfully fires back as Gareth adjusts his hat in an effort to ignore it, giving off the impression he might have been starting to lose patience with her theatrics. Granted, as Siro glanced over at Sagiri's face, it looked like Gareth wasn't the only one.

"If you're just going to waste our time, can we just go now? You made your point. All I want to know about is how you knew our names, so if you're not going to say anything useful then we should just leave before we start losing daylight."

Mockingly raising her hands up as if trying to calm Sagiri down, Delta puts on her best sarcastic 'oh no' face before feigning some kind of concern.

"Whoa, easy there little miss killer, calm down. Don't turn your anger on me too! I was just keeping a big ol' eye on you guys like I do everyone. It's not my fault you can't keep your voices down. I bet everyone thought it was so cool seeing that killer arm go to work!"

Seth and Siro exchanged quick glances, before scanning the rest of the alleyway instinctively. Maybe this whole thing had drawn other people's attention over to their location. Maybe Delta had contacts around that they didn't know of just waiting to surprise them. Or maybe, they just didn't want to agitate Sagiri while her eyes were busy trying to burn holes through a grinning Delta.

"Stop. Don't say shit like that about me. It was self-defense, so DON'T try to start twisting things."

"Twist what?" Delta started, her smile showing little sign of going away anytime soon. "The knife? Like the one of those cute little kunee kunai you bulls-eyed in buddy boy's throat? Should I start calling you 'Missy Murder' instead? Aww man, if you got all up close, I could call you Stabbiri! Don't be sad, everybody's gotta pop their kill cherry sometime! Now you don't have to worry about it next time and you can start appreciating the little things about death! Like how no two people die in exactly the same position. Or that itty bitty moment they realize they're screwed. Oh, doesn't that just give you a nice fuzzy feeling inside?!"

"Hey, that's enough! We didn't even do anything to y-!"

Siro's words cease as Sagiri puts a hand on his shoulder to tell him to stop, before getting her own two cents in.

"Just because you and your partners are insane, doesn't mean the rest of us are. I did what I had to do, and I can find a way to live with that, but don't act like that makes us the same, Delta. You're the only one in that screwed up world of yours."

The girl on the fire escape crosses her arms and puts a hand up to her chin as if thinking inquisitively while an almost playful "Hmmm..." escapes her during her 'deep concentration'.

"So that's how it's gonna be with you two, huh? But you are...right! There's only one me! That's what makes things interesting, isn't it? I mean, if you start throwing 2 or 3 of me in here, that'd be no fun at all. People like me because I keep things fresh. I hear everybody just loves cheering for the bad guy, and if a girl like me is the villain for surviving and living life to the fullest, then I'll take it! You know what? I think I like you guys already!"

Emilio groans and rolls his eyes like he's just not feeling it and would rather be anywhere else. Usually he was perfectly fine with letting Delta do her thing, but they already ran into and did this whole routine with a couple of other groups today alone. Not to mention him and Gareth already wanted to get going before everything from the next supply drop was completely gone. She might have been fine with taking on everyone to try and picking up leftovers because she 'hates big crowds', but if she didn't try to entertain the people watching so much, they could be in and out before anybody noticed. He almost always got pissed off whenever they got into some long drawn out fight anyway. Would she listen to him? Probably not, but she'd make fun of him and go on about it if he didn't try.

"Shouldn't we be wrapping this up, little lady? This is kinda getting to be a pain in the ass, and I really want to just go and find the next drop zone before I end up having to shank anymore people toda-"

_**"SUPPLY DROP WILL COMMENCE IN SECTOR SEVEN IN FIVE MINUTES. REPEAT, FIVE MINUTES UNTIL SUPPLY DROP IN SECTOR SEVEN."** _

A booming voice blared over hidden speakers throughout the entirety of the city, and Siro looked down to see a mini-map with a marked location on it appear on his wrist display. Shaking his head, Emilio grits his teeth and looks over at his rather 'unique' squad leader, who proceeds to react like she completely forgot before turning her attention back to him.

"Aww, dammit, did I go long again? You win, Emmy! Let's grab our stuff and mosey on down there! Maybe those army guys are gonna be in a sharing mood since it's right next door to them. Hey, a girl can dream!"

Before turning to join her partners as they step back inside the window to retrieve the rest of their belongings, Delta turns her focus back towards Triple S below.

"Gotta scoot, kiddos! Hope you find yourselves a nice place to crash tonight. Make yourselves at home! Just...don't follow us tonight, kay? And remember, it might be their show, but I'm the star!"

Then, with a mischievous bow and her lips parted into one last grin, she was gone.

* * *

** Next Chapter - Shelter and Survival:   
**

_With night falling, and the reality of their new surroundings etched into their brains, the trio searches for some sort of safe haven and a place to call their own. However, is any place really safe in a city where anything goes?_


	5. Shelter and Survival

The sun was continuously setting over the city as night began to get ever closer to rearing its ugly head, chipping away at any sort of illusion of safety that anybody might be foolish enough to have. An almost purple-coloured tone peaks through the clouds like it were some eerie reminder of the diminishing visibility that was present even now. Sagiri Akamine drowns out the smells of smoke and unsightly garbage as she takes the lead and walks in front of her comrades. It was true that they'd elected to let Siro serve as leader, and he'd offered to go first without any prompting like she knew he would, but he needed to be focused right now. Beyond her acknowledgement of Siro thinking he had to be the hero though, the young woman needed her time to process over everything that had happened too. Realistically, Sagiri didn't think that anybody would question her being better at internalizing how things made her feel than Siro was with the way he tended to just let his thoughts and feelings hang out there. On the other end of things, Seth's penchant for hiding some of his by being a smartass could get a bit grating from time to time. Sure it was just to try and alleviate their stress a little, but he didn't always have what one would call good timing.

" _Easy there, little miss killer..."_

Sagiri swallows hard to remove the lump in her throat, and finds herself instinctively clenching her fist as Delta's words resonate through her mind.

" _Everybody's gotta pop their kill cherry sometime!"_

Unintentionally, her walking speeds up slightly, paying little to no attention to the fact she was both leading them towards the city's Western wall, and putting more distance between the rest of the trio. She bore no glorified fantasies about the nature and danger of where they were. More than that, she had always been skeptical on certain parts of the entire production when it came to 'neutral integrity' and 'fairness'. The unfortunate reality of the situation though, was that as much as the young woman may have been able to come to terms with the situation, it didn't change that she was a little shaken. Delta's entire behaviour towards her seemed like it was laid out simply for the purpose of pouring salt into the still fresh wound that was Sagiri's psyche. Having some 19 year old brat trying to toy with her like the entire city was one big playground for her little mind games frustrated her to no end.

The fact she knew what Delta had been trying to do was almost the worst part of it all.

Despite what Siro might try to tell her to make her feel better, how he'd apologize almost ad nauseam and blame himself, or how he'd say she was strong, she knew she had faults of her own. In spite of them being close, his views on strength and results were less grounded and almost strangely naive due to his occasional idealistic tendencies. While he had this whole idea and vision of 'being yourself even if the world wants something else', this sometimes led to his unknowing rigidness causing things to be more difficult than they needed to be. Yet, even with Sagiri being more adaptable and able to willing to grow situations than Siro was, the 22 year old had to concede she'd gotten into trouble over what could be perceived as impulsiveness.

And that was just what had happened here.

When she threw the kunai, it was almost like her arm moved on its own. There was no long analysis of what to do, concern over if it missed, or even how badly the man would be injured. All Sagiri had known was that he was going to kill Siro and Seth if she didn't do anything, and that at the very least, they had to incapacitate him for a bit. With all of that being that case, it wasn't exactly correct for her to say that it was something to be regretted. The ugly truth was that when she compared the possible alternatives, it was the one that made it so they knew he wouldn't come after them. He drew on her friends first, and if there was another choice, then she would've taken it. Seeing her kunai lodged into his throat with its blade coated in his blood, though? That feeling of identification and the realization that yes, the one that did that was her? It was something Sagiri wasn't fully prepared for. No matter how strong-minded, how prepared somebody was, there were just some things you couldn't fully understand until they happened. Regardless of what the reason behind it was, and as much as she hated to think it, for all intents and purposes: she was a murderer.

" _'What's the price of your dreams?' indeed."_ She thinks to herself with almost a depressed sigh. There was no doubt in her mind that it'd stick with her for a while, but she felt like she knew enough about how she was to be able to live with it. Even though he didn't always act like it, she felt as if the same could probably be said about Seth when, not if, the time came. Turning and looking back over her shoulder, she can't help but wonder though. What about Siro?

_**CLUNK!** _

Before even taking the time to process what just happened, Sagiri's concentration is broken as she quickly jumps to the left, narrowly dodging a piece of debree that had until recently, been hanging rather precariously from the building to their right. Silently, she curses herself for letting her mind wander in spite of their situation.

"Don't tell me you forgot to take your own advice after giving the whole 'keep your eyes peeled and stay sharp' schtick when I almost tripped over that home-made mine back there."

Seth's smartass comment even as things showed signs of crumbling on both sides of them made her stop and let out a deep sigh before turning to face them. As she did, it was like the images in her mind decided to just turn themselves off. Even so, she could still tell that Siro had been looking at her as they'd gone. His reaction being to look to the side and down a little gave him away just as much as the fact that she knew how he was well enough to not even have to look.

"Hey Sagiri...you alright?" He asks her in a tone that suggests both a mixture of concern, and an attempt to reassure himself that she is. "Look, try not to let what Delta said get to you, okay? She's just trying to mess with you since she doesn't know anything about us."

It was almost like there was some sort of mental cue that just clicked on in his brain telling him to check up on her. Truthfully, it would have been strangely funny to her if she'd guessed wrong for once, but she knew both that Siro couldn't help but worry about her, and why he couldn't resist. Quietly, she lets out a slight unintentional laugh to herself before clearing her throat and allowing herself to focus again.

"I know she was, Siro. I'm good. It'd take a lot more than that for me to listen to some crazy bitch like that. Especially when that damn voice made me want to punch her in the face."

The entirety of the way Delta had conducted herself and spoken was even more grating than it had come across in broadcasts. It was something Sagiri hadn't quite been able to pick up until she'd met the girl face to face. In spite of what she'd been known for, and even with everything that they knew she'd done, there was something hidden behind it all. Underneath the mask of that forced sounding attempt at a playful voice, had been a hint of the true sadist that Delta must have been. Sagiri knew the possibility of her being paranoid was there, but she didn't at all feel willing to believe there wasn't anything more to the 19 year old's behaviour.

"We still have to find somewhere to stay the night, you know." She remarks, not so subtly changing the subject. "Preferably somewhere that's not going to cave in on us while we're sleeping."

As much as he may have been partly frustrated at her switching subjects like that, Siro internally decides to remind that part of him to kindly keep quiet. While he steps cautiously over the cracked and broken pavement, he grudgingly notes that even though the 'leader' designation sort of fell on him because there had to be somebody, Sagiri had been the one making all of the suggestions and decisions. Yes, he trusted her implicitly, but Siro also trusted that she'd question him about his resolve if he kept wanting her to make all of the decisions.

"What if...we try to find something right by that border wall? I mean, we're already heading west, there's the river just before it that I read the crew brings equipment in on way upstream, and there's that network or broadcasting or whatever building a little bit north, right? At least we won't have people coming at us from the west or north since nobody can go near there, and if the river's man-made too it might even be fresh water. I know it's probably gonna be a long hike if we want supplies, but..."

His voice trails off as he starts overthinking things. It was true that from what he'd seen and read online most people tried to be as close to the common drop points as possible, but what if somebody else had had the same idea he did? Or what if production decided to expand south into where they were going? Then what?

In the corner of his eyes, he spots Sagiri giving almost a wry sort of smirk in his direction. "That might be the smartest thing you've said today." Her wits seemed undamaged at the very least, and even with Seth doing a rather poor job of not laughing at his expense behind him, Siro was glad that she still seemed to be herself.

"Look guys" Seth starts. "I just want somewhere inside where I don't have to sleep on concrete. A smart guy like me has gotta get his beauty sleep, right? You need this lovely wit."

"Pretty sure she said 'I don't need this shit', Seth."

Rolling his eyes and shaking his head back in Siro's direction, Seth lets out a carefree "yeah, yeah", pulls his hood up and casually takes the lead as he walks past. Sagiri had been more subdued and withdrawn since meeting Delta than either she or Siro would likely admit, and he was about to start letting himself stress over anything and everything again. Seth knew somebody had to get them going and if he was being honest, annoying his friends wasn't the least enjoyable thing in the world. Besides, both he and Sagiri knew Siro, stubborn as he was, would drive himself crazy trying to shut down what they said, bad idea or not. Lightening things up just happened to give him that extra little bit of incentive and a push was all.

Whistling to himself and feeling as smug as a cat that just caught a bird, he takes in the view around them. It didn't look like the buildings in their immediate vicinity were in what you'd call 'mint condition' by even Compound standards, but at least they were still standing. Or, were currently still standing at the very least. Sure, the trio could have probably tried to make something work with some of them, but considering they were still close to the few that decided to start breaking parts off, and could still get closer to the river, he kept going. Sure he was banking on Siro wanting to follow because the poor guy would start internally stressing if Seth took too long coming back, after all. Ideally though, it'd be a pretty damn long time before he even had to use any of them.

The way the city felt was something that all three of them were beginning to question if they would ever get used to it. Yeah, after spending their first day there, it still had a lot of things you'd expect a city to have. There were water towers, electrical wires, power clearly going to a number of different buildings, and a variety of things that suggested people were going to more creative means in order to get by. Siro had even spotted something that looked like it was once some kind of miniature produce farm and thought to look for anything they could use for food themselves. All he got for his troubles was a close encounter with some sheers under the rubble, but none of them wanted to particularly think on what must've happened when the natives got a little too hungry.

Even with the apparent existence of power, water, and the like, the entire city's atmosphere was an overbearing sense of oppression. It hung in the air like the smells of smoke and gunpowder that came with it, and although it wasn't as jarring as it had initially been, the feeling still pressed on their chests like a wet blanket. There were almost no sounds of life here either. No cars honking through traffic, no music blaring from radios, no idle chatter from the people who would line the sidewalks, and no birds flying around as they looked for scraps of leftover fast food. Seth spotted a couple of sickly looking rats scurrying around on the way to their current location, but something in his gut told him that he'd never consider eating something that mangy regardless of how hungry he was. Give him a spoonful of wet rice and a handful of termites over that kind of shit any day.

In reality, the whole landscape came across as almost post-apocalyptic in a strange sense. He'd seen pictures of how it looked when it was finished 25 years ago, with even potential resources to sustain a smaller population, but that was never going to last. Supposedly the first couple of years before things 'settled down' were littered with constant infighting, destruction of blocks at a time, and almost half of what had been put in place to sustain them getting lost and destroyed. The producers thought things would escalate slowly, and that they'd have an easy first two years to establish the brand, but things spiralled out of control. People were people after all, and when they got hungry, or tired, or paranoid, it was only natural that groups were going to form to hoard everything. Honestly, Seth thought it was a minor miracle that it took months, instead of weeks for the place to turn into a borderline warzone. It got so bad that the whole thing was almost shut down on multiple occasions and they had to double up the size and frequency of the supply drops.

Most of the city was still in comparatively good shape when put next to the essential 'dead zone' where most fighting had taken place, but for all his joking, it was never going to quiet down entirely. Even though the past couple of years hadn't been like the first few, or even like the second big conflict from 10 years ago, this place was always going to be a wretched hive.

One that that crazy bitch Delta had spent essentially 2 decades inside of. He can't help but snicker and shake his head, amused by how the "little badass" people at home loved to watch like some rogue hell-raiser, was just as much insane and a borderline sadist, as she was badass. Hell, for all he knew right now, she could've been a lot more.

"Don't start shuffling your feet back there, you guys, or I'm turning us back around right now." Seth jests, going back into his familiar demeanour. "I'm not gonna leave you two to get lost back there like little ol' lost puppies. Even if one of you's probably hoping for that, am I right?"

Continuing on and paying no heed to the pair of eyes glaring at him, he fails quite miserably at removing the satisfied grin off of his face. As he approaches what must have been the 5th pile of rubble, Seth feels something rub against his leg.

"The hell? Go away, I don't have time to be playing with you today..."

Shaking it off him with his foot, and kicking it aside and apart, the string-like object clears open the path in front of him.

_**Beep.** _

Seth cocks his head to the side at the sudden sound out of seemingly nowhere, trying to dismiss it as merely his imagination.

_**Beep!** _

" _Oh godammit, not again..."_

He feels sweat start to drip down his back as he strongly considers setting a new long jumping world record.

_**BEEP!** _

"Get back, dammit!"

Diving away like he was sliding into home plate, Seth leaps onto his stomach with a thud as the timer reaches zero. Rather understandably, the natural smartass finds himself too preoccupied with avoiding turning into pieces of charred flesh to notice Siro instinctively grab Sagiri to shield her.

_**Hissss...** _

After what felt like an eternity, Seth takes a deep breath and looks carefully over his shoulder, ignoring the pain in his chest from landing less than gracefully on concrete. There'd been no explosion, no mass destruction, nothing. All that there had been was a small fizzing of smoke emerging from under some stones and a realization that was both relieving and embarrassing. Whatever the explosive device was had turned into nothing more than a fortunate dud. Quickly trying to get to his feet and fixing the hood of his sweater, Seth simply shrugs his shoulders as Siro shakes his head at him.

"Man...I don't want to take a page out of Sagiri's book here but, did you really just almost get us blown up again? Come on..."

"Siro."

"Uh, what is it?"

Siro looks down, shifting his focus from Seth, to Sagiri, who faked a cough to keep his attention.

"You can let go of me now."

Quickly realizing that he was still holding her like he was trying to protect her, Siro wastes no time in letting go and stepping back, and even less time in feeling completely embarrassed. In most circumstances he would never hear the end of something like that, but since Seth could have gotten them killed this time, he thinks that might not exactly be the case.

"Did you find anything before you started kicking landmines, Seth?"

Rolling his eyes and motioning for them to follow, he resumes walking in his earlier direction, this time making sure to steer clear of the rubble that hid the bomb, while ensuring he didn't go tripping over any other ones that might have been in the neighbourhood. There'd been way too many close calls today for his liking.

"I saw a little something in the corner of my eye that's about as on the water as you can get without actually taking a swim." He starts, pointing a little to his left. "It's a couple of storeys high, even if the top 2 have seen better days, and I don't know what those big metal storage crates near it are for. I didn't notice any signs of people being around so, boom. You get the border as protection, and the ninja gets her waterfront view."

"Seth, I swear one of these days I'm shoving my foot all the way up your ass."

Ignoring her, he passes by some junk near a broken door frame and gives a sarcastic 'ta-da" at the open area in front of them. Yeah, the cargo containers were rusted and dented, yeah the building's red and brown bricks were chipped in places, and the rooms and windows on the floors above ground level looked like somebody really hated windows, but it actually seemed stable enough. Seth thinks he spots some stairs by peering through a window, and some kind of fire escape ladder combination on the outside.

The compound's border wall stood in front of them, on the other side of a river about as wide as a 4 lane highway. Casting a glance downstream to his right, he points out one of the barricaded Communications Centers in the distance where the water begins to widen more.

"See, people? Sure it's a bit beat up, but that's just character. All we have to do is clear it out, and we've got ourselves an official home base. What do you think?"

Siro scratches the back of his neck and puts both hands in the pockets of his cargo pants casually as he scours the area.

"Yeah, I think I'll call it. As long as there's nobody here, and it doesn't collapse on us, I'm game. Now we can actually start trying to figure out what to do next. How about you, Sagiri?"

With a hand on the belt holding her kunai, Sagiri takes her own opportunity to look around. She lets out a sigh that just seems to say 'it could be worse', before making eye contact with Siro.

"What we need to do next, is find some help."

* * *

** Next Chapter - The Risks of Trust:  
**

_As the trio attempts to settle into their new shelter, the focus switches to finding allies so they can better adjust. Deals may all be part of the game, but how do you trust someone's allegiance, when you don't fully know their intentions?_


End file.
